Population Density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area. In simple terms population density
refers to the number of people living in an area per kilometer square. The area may be a city, district, state or a
country etc. There is a large variation of population density in different regions. The population density of
world presently is estimated at 58.67 people per km² (151.96 per sq. mile).Among the continents Asia is the
most dense (246 persons/km2) followed by Europe (188 persons/km2), Africa (87 persons/km2 ) N America (57
persons/km2) , South America (54 persons/km2 ) and Australia ( 8.3 persons/km2 ).
With population above 10,000,000 ( ten million)
Country (or dependent Density Density
Area (km2) Area (mi2) Population
territory) (pop./km2) (pop./mi2)
 Bangladesh 143,998 55,598 165,001,946 1,146 2,968
 Taiwan 36,193 13,974 23,572,049 651 1,686
 South Korea 100,210 38,691 51,635,256 515 1,334
 Rwanda 26,338 10,169 12,001,136 456 1,181
 Haiti 27,065 10,450 11,112,945 411 1,064
1,335,543,95
 India 3,287,240 1,269,210 406 1,052
7
 Burundi 27,816 10,740 10,681,186 384 995
 Belgium 30,528 11,787 11,414,214 374 969
 Philippines 300,000 115,831 106,302,840 354 917
 Japan 377,944 145,925 126,490,000 335 868

There is a large variation in population distribution and density. Almost half of the population lives in less than
10 percent land area where as almost 33 percent land is almost uninhabited.
Densely populated regions:

There are four areas in the world where the average density of population is more than 100 persons per sq. km. These are
1. East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan).
2. South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal).
3. North-West Europe (UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Denmark, Spain,
Portugal and Italy).
4. Eastern North America (North-East United States and South-East Canada).
All these areas of dense population lie in the northern hemisphere and are so placed that more than 75 per cent of the
world’s population is now concentrated between the Tropic of Cancer and 70° north.

Sparsely populated regions:

The regions with sparse population are mainly the regions which have harsh climate and are inaccessible. They can be
classified as
1. Deserts and Arid lands (Deserts of Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Sahara, Sudan, Tibet, Ladakh, Central Asia and
Australia.)
2. Ice caps and cold regions ( the arctic and Antarctic region
3. Mountainous regions ( area above 2500 m in Himalayas, rockies, Andes)
4. Tropical rain forests (The amazon basin, congo basin, java, Sumatra, phillipines)